Post #28449

🎙Statement by Permanent Representativeof the Russian Federation to the UN Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on the situation in the Middle East(New York, February 18, 2026) 💬Vassily Nebenzia: Over the past ten days, a number of members of Israel's military-political cabinet have announced the adoption of a package of measures that imply revising the legal status and the control modalities in Areas A and B of the West Bank, and launching a land registration process in Area C, designating this territory as “state property” open to development by the Israelis. All of this is nothing but a blatant attempt to legalize the decisions to expand settlements in the OPT, confiscate land, demolish Palestinian property, usurp water resources, and establish control over certain religious holy sites in Hebron and Bethlehem. ❗️ In other words, we see an obvious intention on the part of West Jerusalem to give themselves carte blanche to irreversibly change the status quo in the West Bank, including through entrenching creeping expansion and expelling the local population. <...> It is with regret and with alarm that we note that, under various pretexts – be it security or counter-terrorism efforts – Israel continues to breach its treaty-based obligations as the occupying Power, and violate the provisions of specific Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 and the New York Declaration in support of the two-State solution approved by the General Assembly. ⚠️ Such utter disregard for international law and a policy of creating irreversible facts on the ground are being rejected with bewilderment by the overwhelming majority of the international community. <...> Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, will continue to resolutely uphold the principles of a fair settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in accordance with Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, on the basis of the “two-state” formula approved by international decisions. We believe there is a need to step up international efforts to restore the political horizon in order to resolve the Palestinian issue. 👉 The fruit of such collective steps would be the establishment of a sovereign State of Palestine within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting in peace and security with Israel. Read in full